During the night of October 26-27, a Soviet nuclear cruise missile unit moved to a pre-prepared site near the village of Filipinas, just 15 miles from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo. As the Soviet convoy approached the site at dawn, the Cuban defenders opened fire because of a mixup over passwords. The cruise missiles were under the command of a major, and lacked any special locks or codes to prevent them from being fired at the U.S. naval base.

Mayari Arriba was the supply base for the FKR cruise missile regiment in eastern Cuba. Deep in the Sierra del Cristal, the village was also Raul Castro's headquarters during the revolution against Batista, so he knew the area well. Around October 24, a Soviet cruise missile unit was sent from Mayari Arriba to a reserve position at Vilorio. On the night of October 26-27, the convoy was ordered to the starting position at Vilorio.

U.S. Marines on guard at Guantanamo Naval Base during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The marines were unaware that Soviet troops were deployed only 15 miles away, armed with nuclear cruise missiles, that could have destroyed the naval base in a few minutes. Each FKR cruise missile was armed with a 14-kiloton nuclear warhead, roughly the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

A 20-year-old conscript, Viktor Mikheev was part of the FKR nuclear cruise missile convoy deployed from the reserve position at Vilorio to the starting position at Filipinas on the night of October 26-27, 1962. He was one of two Soviet soldiers killed when their truck toppled into a ravine. After calling for ambulances, the convoy continued on to the village of Filipinas, 15 miles from Guantanamo.